TOP QUARTET WALKS ON WITHOUT FAULT
Schalke, Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen all do their duty
against lowly Rostock, Bochum, Cottbus and Stuttgart (more
or less convincingly).
In other Bundesliga action Werder and Freiburg consolidate
their mid-table position, Köln puts five past Frankfurt to
get Felix Magath sacked and 10 Berliner come from behind
to beat a helpless HSV.
26 JANUARY 2001
SCHALKE 2-0 ROSTOCK
Böhme 4
Nemec 67
The league leaders got off to a great start after Asamoah (playing
in place of the still not 100% fit Mpenza) won a free kick which
Böhme fantastically hammered under the bar. The untiring winger
later denied Arvidsson the equalizer with a great sliding tackle.
Asamoah barely missed an amazing backheel goal after an overhead
kick assist by Van Kerckhoven. "Meister" Nemec sealed the victory
with an untra-rare goal, a stiff shot out of row 2. Pieckenhagen,
despite conceding 2, was most outstanding for Hansa.
Attendance: 29,700
27 JANUARY 2001
KAISERSLAUTERN 0-0 WOLFSBURG
Game became a lottery after an extreme snowstorm set in after half
an hour. Pettersson got Biliskov sent off with a dive. Juskowiak got
his countryman Klos sent off with a dive. After the break 'Lautern
created a glut of chances but was missing rising star Klose who had
to stay in the locker room because of a concussion.
His substitute Pettersson kept going down all game long instead of
attempting to shoot until Reitmaier had enough of it and gave him
a 10 cm long laceration upside his knee which will keep him out of
action for three weeks.
Red Cards: Biliskov 41 (Wolfsburg), Klos 80 (Kaiserslautern)
Attendance : 36,787
FREIBURG 2-0 UNTERHACHING
Herzog 36 (og)
Zeyer 54
Herzog scored a beauty of an own goal from Kobiashvili's cross, his
2nd of the season. Pathetic little gay shite Andy Zeyer scored his
already 4th (!) goal of the season with a tap-in from Iashvili's
centre (courtesy of most amateurish defending by Bucher).
Freiburg is rock solid in defense at home, only 5 goals conceded,
2nd best in the league. Defensive cornerstone Boubacar Diarra even
achieved an absolute Bundesliga novelty 100% won 1-on-1 duels in
this game. Awesomely dominant!
Attendance : 24,000
BREMEN 2-0 1860 MÜNCHEN
Aílton 65
Pizarro 71
Teams were about equal in the first half and both wasted chances.
Aílton had the biggest of all when he already had the 'keeper
beaten and the goal wide open but Zelic cleared his shot on the
line.
Eilts headed on a slack clearance and Toni finally broke the
scoring deadlock with his first headed goal in the Bundesliga
20 minutes into the 2nd half. Jentzsch spilled Frings' shot,
Pizarro put away the rebound.
Krstajic had an awesome game in defense, while "Libero" Verlaat
was hiding in midfield for large potions of the game the Yugoslav
defender headed, tackled and bumped around Lions' attackers like
crazy for 90 minutes.
Attendance : 24,473
DORTMUND 2-0 COTTBUS
Nerlinger 64
Bobic 65
Ricken, the hot breath of new signing Rosický on his neck (the Czech
playmaker was out with the flu for this game) put on an ambitious
showing and dragged a sweeping first-time volley off his chest just
over from debutant Sørensen's cross.
Latoundji wasted two marvellous chances on the counter attack.
Nerlinger scored the all-important 1-0 with a thumping header from
Stevic's corner. Sørensen tackled the ball to Ricken, he drew out
Piplica and centred for Bobic who bundled a rare goal over the line.
Awful game. Still Dortmund is now unbeaten in 8 straight games
(season high).
Attendance : 61,500
BAYERN MÜNCHEN 3-2 BOCHUM
Effenberg 21, 89 Bastürk 41, 59
Élber 53
Effenberg scored a fantastic goal from just outside the area, ball
took a slight deflection off Freier though. Kahn had to save with a
mad charge off his line after Bastürk pounced on Sforza's hospital
pass. Élber and Scholl could have increased the lead but blew two
glorious chances within 60 seconds. 1,68m Bastürk punished slack,
slack marking by the defending champs with a diving header(!) from
Mandreko's cross.
Effenberg really was all over the fucking place, creating chances up
front and winning balls in defense. Effe then destroyed Bochum with
one of his huge, trademark 50m passes, Scholl flicked onto the ball
and Élber crashed it past Van Duijnhoven. Élber missed the decisive
3-1 by iiiiiiinches after another stunning pass from Effenberg.
Bastürk stunned the 32,000 in the Olympiastadion (negative record!)
by equalizing again with a fierce free kick from 25 meters out.
But it was Effenberg who had the last say. The Bayern playmaker
crowned a World Class performance with a World Class game winner
1 minute from time: Bochum failed to clear Kahn's huge punt upfield,
Élber centred, Effenberg coolly pulled the ball down with his chest
and perfectly placed it past the 'keeper -- my goodness, doesn't get
much better than that, what Effenberg did in this game was sheer and
total dominance!
Attendance : 32,000
FRANKFURT 1-5 KÖLN
Kryszalowicz 63 Kurth 12, 41
Kracht 28 (og)
Scherz 36
Arveladze 89
Scherz clobbered Kracht on the wing, new signing Rada couldn't stop
his centre and Kurth was there to give the "Domstädter" the early
lead. Kracht made matters worse by sliding Springer's centre into
his own net.
Dziwior put through Scherz on the counter attack, Scherz rounded the
'keeper and made it 0-3 from an acute angle. But the nightmare for
Frankfurt wasn't over yet: Kurth helped himself to his 2nd of the
game, 6th of the season with an easy tap-in from another Springer
centre and Frankfurt were down 0-4 at half time.
Still the Eintracht managed to pull one back after the break via
Kryszalowicz who capitalized on a goalmouth scramble. Köln put the
exclamation mark behind their impressive road show when Kurth carried
the ball into the area and fed Arveladze who rounded the 'keeper and
scored goal #5.
Attendance : 28,100
28 JANUARY 2001
LEVERKUSEN 4-0 STUTTGART
Schneider 46
Kirsten 49 (Pen), 67 (Pen)
Ballack 51
Stuttgart defended well and counter-attacked nicely in the first half
but totally fell apart in the second after Balakov was sent off for
handballing on the goalline. But first things first: Schneider opened
the scoring with a tap-in from Ballack's cross one minute after the
break.
Balakov then made this great reflex save, unfortunately he's the
playmaker and not the 'keeper, red card and Kirsten put away the
penalty. Nowotny picked out Ballack in the box with a superb pass,
the new Effenberg bounced the ball off his chest and fired a left
footed shot into the far pocket - World Class !
Hildebrand then floored the Bayer playmaker in the box and Kirsten
again without fault from the spot. Some tremendous football by
Leverkusen ! New signings Lúcio and Placente fit in without any
trouble, Nowotny marshalled a defense which did not allow any chances
and Ballack who will announce his move to Real Madrid soon had a
World Class match and created almost a chance-a-minute.
Red Card : Balakov 48 (Stuttgart)
Attendance : 22,500 (sold out)
HAMBURG 1-2 HERTHA
Butt 29 (Pen) Preetz 63, 81
Butt(!) made a great save 1-on-1 against Alex Alves. Rob Maas,
starting his first game in 2 years, was sent off for a cheap
'Hand of God' imitation while trying to clear Yeboah's shot.
Butt sent Király the wrong way from the penalty spot.
The HSV 'keeper then punched Panadic's lights out with a stiff
right hand to the face while attempting to clear -- this guy is
dangerous, even for his own teammates !
Despite playing against 10 Berliner only Hamburg lost grip of
the game they never really had under control so it came like it
had to and Preetz "stole" a goal against 6 HSV defenders who were
simply too stupid to defend a corner.
Cardoso was sent off for an awful, brutal, leg-breaking, from
behind tackle on Konstantinidis. Finally Hamburg's "defense"
watched a long ball sail over their heads, Preetz collected it,
shook off Fukal and fired past Butt for the game winner.
Király catches crosses with one hand like Schmeichel used to.
Red Cards : Maas 28 (Hertha), Cardoso 77 (Hamburg)
Attendance : 40,057
Ciao,
Tim Leidecker
http://milanmania.com
http://soccer-europe.com
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